Revelation 21:1

1. The vision of the new heaven and earth 21:1

John now saw a new scene that expounded the passing away of the present earth and heaven to which he had just referred briefly (Revelation 20:11). The new earth and heaven will come into existence after the Millennium and the great white throne judgment. Many interpreters take the new earth and heaven as a picture of the present age of the church, but this is unwarranted.

The reason God will destroy the present heaven and earth is that He originally made them as the habitat for humanity. However sin so thoroughly corrupted not only the human race but the race’s environment that He will destroy it and create a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. This is the final stage in His plan to deliver humanity into the blessing He originally intended people to enjoy.

"Throughout the entire Bible, the ultimate destiny of God’s people is an earthly destiny. In typical dualistic Greek thought, the universe was divided into two realms: the earthly or transitory, and the eternal spiritual world. Salvation consisted of the flight of the soul from the sphere of the transitory and ephemeral to the realm of eternal reality. However, biblical thought always places man on a redeemed earth, not in a heavenly realm removed from earthly existence." [Note: Ladd, p. 275.]

Is this a creation out of nothing (ex nihilo) like the creation of the first heaven and earth (Genesis 1)? [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, pp. 439-40; Beasley-Murray, p. 307; et al.] Or is it a thorough renovation of the present heaven and earth? [Note: Gale Z. Heide, "What Is New about the New Heaven and the New Earth? A Theology of Creation from Revelation 21 and 2 Peter 3," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 40:1 (March 1997):37-56.] I favor an entirely new creation in view of 2 Peter 3:10-12. A renovation of the present earth will take place earlier, namely, at the beginning of the Millennium.

Is the new heaven and earth that John saw the same new heaven and earth that Isaiah predicted (Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22; cf. Psalms 102:25-26; Isaiah 51:6)? We would normally assume that the entities are the same since the terms that describe them are almost identical. However the descriptions of these places vary. Isaiah wrote that people will die in the new earth (Isaiah 65:17-20), but John said there will be no more death there (Revelation 21:4). Isaiah predicted that the moon will shine in the new heavens (Isaiah 66:22-23), but John implied that there will be no moon there (Revelation 21:23). Apparently Isaiah spoke of both the Millennium and the eternal state generally as new heavens and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17 to Isaiah 66:24), which is accurate since even in the Millennium the world will experience renovation. John, in the progress of revelation, distinguished these two aspects of the eschaton and applied the name "new heaven and earth" only to the eternal state, which is appropriate since God will eventually destroy the present world and create a new world (cf. 2 Peter 3:10). Isaiah’s view of the future was more general while John’s was more specific. Similarly the Old Testament prophets spoke of Messiah’s coming but did not distinguish the first coming from the second coming. Later revelation clarified that there would be two comings. This is in harmony with how God has revealed many things in His Word: first generally, then more specifically (e.g., the biblical covenant promises).

By the first heaven and earth John quite obviously meant this planet and the heavens above it. He did not mean the abode of God that Scripture also calls heaven elsewhere (i.e., the third heaven of 2 Corinthians 12:2; cf. Ephesians 4:10; Hebrews 4:14).

The new earth will have no seas, but oceans will exist in the Millennium (Psalms 72:8; Jeremiah 31:9-10; Ezekiel 47:8-20; Ezekiel 48:28; Zechariah 9:10; Zechariah 14:8). This is another indication that what John saw in chapter 21 was not the Millennium but the eternal state that will follow it. The sea is the first of seven evils that John said would not exist in the new creation, the others being death, mourning, weeping, pain, night, and the curse (Revelation 21:4; Revelation 21:25; Revelation 22:3; Revelation 22:5). Since these other evils are literal entities, we should probably understand the sea as literal too. The sea is an evil in the sense that it opposes humankind. For example, it was the sea that kept John on the Island of Patmos separate from the churches of Asia. [Note: Swete, p. 275.] Presently the seas cover over three-quarters of the earth’s surface. Therefore an earth without seas will be a radically different planet. The seas affect the atmosphere, the climate, and other living conditions as well as human transportation. The absence of any sea is the chief characteristic of the new earth, as John described it.